On Friday Italy held a national day of mourning . For this is not simply an accident . Accidents and emergencies can not last two decades . As a field researcher who has dedicated years of work to maritime migration , and as an Italian citizen , I am grateful to the Italian Council of Ministers for taking such an unprecedented decision to make this declaration .

Today we honor the memory and the families of more than 100 refugees , young adults , women , and children from Eritrea , retrieved off the southern Italian island of Lampedusa ; and of the many dozens who are still trapped at the bottom of the sea . We also honor the selfless work of the island 's residents , tourists , armed forces , medical personnel , and fishermen who have now rescued thousands on their way to Europe .

But I have listened uncomfortably to national and EU politicians who , as usual , have pointed their finger at smugglers , purporting that redoubling efforts to fight them will prevent further loss of life at sea . People at the helm of unseaworthy vessels are menial laborers executing the last and risky part of trips organized by transnational criminal networks .

Smugglers are not the reason why people are on those vessels . Italian and EU institutions are asking what can be done to prevent further tragedies . To answer , they have to ask also whether they did anything to enable them in the first place , including failing to consider implications and alternatives of their specific actions and inactions .

I need to raise a seemingly simple question . What brings thousands of people to trust criminals , pay them 10 times more than they would pay a comfortable seat on a ferry or airplane , and risk their lives ? The overarching answer , in its brutal obviousness , is that they may not legally get on those planes and ferries .

They come from countries , such as Eritrea , that methodically oppress their own citizens and will not grant passports and exit visas . They are refugees , forced to leave home without the time and resources to secure legal passage . They have survived the Sahara , and returning from Libya or Egypt is not a feasible and rational option . They are poor . They fail to offer the financial guarantees requested by European consulates , and will not be granted a visa .

Quotas and legal channels for employment are inadequate both to their needs and to the needs of European economies and aging populations . They are prepared to die as they leave with hope , but do not wish to survive in despair . They fall through the immense cracks of a system that needs them for a job or might grant them asylum , but only if they first make it through miles of peril and years of exploitation .

It is evident then , that the Mediterranean chronicle of death can not end merely as a result of tougher penalties on smugglers , additional resources for search-and-rescue operations , and heightened military surveillance and dissuasion . Prisons , radars , and helicopters are not solutions . Every institution , at every level of governance , needs radical action .

Fishermen and shipmasters should not have to fear that rescuing people will result in criminal charges for aiding and abetting undocumented immigrants . Or are they to engage in racial profiling and evaluate in hectic moments whether somebody in distress is a refugee or an undocumented economic immigrant ? Should they rescue the former , but abandon the latter and perhaps face prosecution for failure to rescue ? Can these decisions , and people 's life , be left to discretion , chance , and the elements ?

EU intergovernmental border patrols -LRB- FRONTEX -RRB- and national armed forces need to clarify , to themselves and to citizens , whether they patrol the Mediterranean to deter migration , to rescue people , or to intercept and deport them to countries of origin and transit .

` Safe , legal channel needed '

Citizens need to remember that in liberal democracies it is on their behalf and in their name that laws are written and implemented . They need to demonstrate to lawmakers that they are not `` afraid '' of their Eritrean , Syrian , Somali , Egyptian , Afghani , Iraqi , Ghanaian , Bangladeshi and Pakistani employees , fiancés , neighbors , schoolmates , and coworkers , to mention the nationalities increasingly resorting to maritime journeys .

What happens with boundaries of socio-economic inclusion and integration is related to what happens at the border . National and EU policymakers need to envision a common family reunification and asylum policy , and establish more homogenous parameters for asylum adjudication . This could help curb the equally perilous journeys of hope of many Afghanis across the Strait of Otranto , from Greece to Italy and then to northern Europe .

Most urgently , national and EU policymakers need to establish accessible , safe , and legal channels for internally and internationally displaced people to apply for asylum or to be granted temporary protection .

These are not problems only concerning smugglers , immigrants , and refugees . This national day of mourning is a call for the EU and its member states to start refashioning what sovereignty and humanitarianism mean in the 21st century . It is an invitation to fellow Italian and European citizens , including migrants and their children , to practise democracy in its representative and participatory dimensions . And it serves as yet another reminder of north-south disparities in wealth and power , signaled by the fact that the Mediterranean is a frontier in the first place .

There is no single solution to the Mediterranean chronicle of death . There are certainly alternatives to this state of affairs . They are more rational , and more just , than inaction and methodic negligence .

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Smugglers are not why people are on these vessels , writes Maurizio Albahari

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Quotas inadequate both to refugees and European economies , he says

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Albahari : EU nations must establish safe , legal channels for displaced people

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No single solution to the Mediterranean chronicle of death , he says